The bigger, the better

Amok Island (born Amsterdam, 1983) is a multi-disciplinary artist from the Netherlands, based in Fremantle, Western Australia and if he wasn't an artist he would be a biologist. Heavily inspired by early naturalists’ scientific illustrations, his work embodies the accuracy and precision representative of technical drawings, used for identification purposes.

 

 

The theme of natural exploration and conservation is a strong and constant undercurrent of Amok Island’s artistic practice. His lifelong fascination with nature and her relationships and history with mankind drive the artist’s obvious appreciation and obsession with his subjects and his urge to direct the attention of his audience to them.  

Amok Island pursues a point of balance where minimal shape and colour remain capable of realistically representing a subject. To accomplish this, he renders his subjects to near bare minimum geometric elements of form, and places paramount importance on the use of a carefully considered colour palette.

Below: "Ravensthorpe’s Six Stages of Banksia baxteri is a 25 metre high wildflower inspired mural painted across three CBH Group silos in Ravensthorpe, Western Australia by acclaimed Fremantle-based artist Amok Island. The project, which entailed 31 days, 338 litres of paint and countless trips up and down the silos in a knuckle boom, is the second in a series of monumental street art murals on grain silos delivered by FORM in partnership with CBH Group over the last 18 months. The first, in the Wheatbelt community of Northam in March 2015, was Australia’s first silo mural project.

The Six Stages of Banksia Baxteri from Peacock Visuals on Vimeo.